Validation of Nursing Outcome Indicators in Patients with Postsurgical Delirium.

Objective: To validate the content of the indicators proposed from the Nursing Outcome Classification in a care plan for delirium management in older adults. Methods: Content validity study, conducted under the expert judgment technique. The procedure was developed in five moments: organization of indicators that respond to the nursing outcome classification for delirium management, support with literature of the indicators that responds to the result, selection of experts, establishment of agreements, and discussion. Quality criteria evaluated: pertinence and relevance, the Content Validity Coefficient and average scores assigned by the experts were calculated. Results: The study had the participation of 14 experts. The indicators, according to criteria of pertinence and relevance evaluated by experts showed a global average content index value of 0.93; 97.05% (66) of the indicators had Content Validity Coefficient > 0.75. Conclusion: The quantitative findings of the indicator validation process showed high relevance and pertinence index, which favors their being applied to measure care changes in patients with delirium.

Anesthetic Management of Elderly Patients With Down Syndrome: A Case Report.

In 1930, the life expectancy of patients with Down syndrome was about 10 years; today, their life expectancy is more than 60 years. With aging, there is an increased need for anesthesia and surgery. There is, however, no published information regarding the anesthetic management of older adults with Down syndrome. In this report, we described the anesthetic management of a 50-year-old woman with Down syndrome undergoing major cervical spine surgery. Components of the anesthetic that we thought would be difficult such as intravenous line placement and endotracheal intubation were accomplished without difficulty. Despite our best efforts, our patient nevertheless experienced both emergence delirium and postoperative vomiting. We advocate that physicians, advanced practice providers, and registered nurses be aware of the unique perianesthesia needs of older patients with Down syndrome.

Nursing Perceptions and Workload Impact of a Standardized Emergence Delirium Assessment Scale in a Postanesthesia Care Unit.

PURPOSE: Emergence delirium (EDL) is a psychomotor behavioral phenomenon that occurs immediately after emergence from general anesthesia. EDL is nearly 1.5 times more common among military than nonmilitary patients. Indirect delirium scales have precluded understanding of EDL in military patients. This quality improvement project assesses the feasibility of adopting a population-specific scale, the Emergence Delirium in the Wounded Warrior (ED-WW) Tool. DESIGN: Pre-post implementation design. METHODS: Postanesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses were surveyed on the clinical utility of the ED-WW Tool and its impact on their workload. The incidence of EDL behaviors in a Veterans Administration PACU was also recorded using the ED-WW Tool. FINDINGS: PACU nurses agreed the ED-WW Tool was of clinical value to military patients and had a very low workload impact. Twenty-one percent of patients demonstrated at least one behavior associated with EDL. CONCLUSIONS: ED-WW Tool adoption is clinically feasible and recommended for practice.

Subanesthetic-Dose Ketamine to Decrease Emergence Delirium in the Surgical Patient With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Recently, emergence delirium (ED) has been associated with patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Currently, no research exists to support best practice in this population. Identification of the pathophysiologic alterations that occur in ED and PTSD can guide pharmacotherapy. Emerging evidence suggests that glutaminergic dysfunction plays a role in ED and PTSD. A comprehensive understanding of the glutaminergic alterations that occur in ED and PTSD exposes a potential for pharmacologic intervention. The anesthetic agent ketamine modulates glutamate neurotransmission via N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonism. By appreciating the relationship that exists between ED, PTSD, and glutamate, one can extrapolate that a subanesthetic dose of ketamine may decrease ED in the surgical patient with PTSD.

Management of Emergence Delirium in Adult PTSD Patients: Recommendations for Practice.

Emergence delirium is a known phenomenon which occurs after general anesthesia in approximately 5% of the general population. However, individuals who have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder may present with symptoms refractory to conventional methods of reorientation. In the past several years, literature has begun to address the problem, but no standardized guidelines exist at present. The authors synthesize the available literature, combining data with evidence-driven principles from multiple disciplines, to submit an initial set of guidelines until research either supports or disproves these recommendations.

Changes in Heart Rate and Autonomic Nervous Activity after Orthopedic Surgery in Elderly Japanese Patients.

Evidence regarding nursing support for delirium prevention is currently insufficient. An evaluation of changes in autonomic nervous activity over time after surgery would elucidate the features of autonomic nervous activity in patients with delirium. These results could provide a basis for effective nursing intervention and timing for preventing the onset of delirium. Here, we aimed to obtain basic data on effective nursing interventions for preventing the onset of postoperative delirium. Heart rate variability was recorded during the morning and nighttime on the day before surgery until 3 days postoperatively in elderly patients who underwent orthopedic surgery to investigate the manner in which heart rate and autonomic nervous activity changed over time. Data were collected over 11 months from July 2013 to November 2014. Surgical stress led to the maintenance of heart rate at a significantly higher value from the day of the surgery until postoperative day 3 compared to that before surgery. Moreover, the autonomic nervous activity remained unchanged during the morning, and it was significantly lower during the night from postoperative day 1 until postoperative day 3 than before the surgery. These results suggest that there is a decrease in parasympathetic nervous activity during the nighttime postoperatively.

Delirium: the lived experience of older people who are delirious post-orthopaedic surgery.

Delirium is a common, potentially preventable and reversible cause of postoperative functional disability, morbidity, and mortality. It can lead to increased health-care use and also poses a substantial challenge for nurses caring for patients who experience delirium after surgery. Predominantly, the published work concentrates on diagnosis, reduction of the modifiable risk factors, and treatments. Compared with this body of published work, the experience of delirium from a patient's perspective has been largely ignored except for a limited number of qualitative research reports. The importance of researching the lived experience of delirium is that a better understanding may lead to more empathic, therapeutic nursing care and help other sufferers to know they are not alone. The aims of the study were to explore and clarify the lived experience of delirium. Eleven patients were recruited to the study following discharge post-surgery from an orthopaedic ward of a major tertiary hospital. The study used a qualitative descriptive approach and incorporated grounded theory data analysis processes. The findings of this study provide an insight into the incomprehensible emotional pain suffered by patients while they were delirious and the disparate feelings of remorse, guilt, and shame they experienced after the episode of delirium. Following this study, recommendations for nursing practice include formal follow-up support for patients with post-delirium episodes and more research into the long-term impact of the experience of delirium.